I have absolutely no opinion about hidjab.

Unless it is shoved in my face as a symbol of implied superiority, at which point it becomes equivalent to a swastika tattooed on forehead. But then again, if you absolutely feel the need to go that way, good for you, just make sure you carry your religious and moral baggage. Like living your life with (one) religion first.

That may be true, and yes, that's racism of a sort, but it's positive racism, or racial pride rather than racism against another race.

First you must define racist with a clear, easily defined and observed line to delineate racist from not before any answer would be possible. If you mean swastika wearing, cross burning, white nationalist racist, probably around .05% would be my guess, but it's just a guess....if you mean I don't want my white daughter dating a black man racist, closer to 20% or higher.

From an article by Chris Hedges:

Robert Paxton wrote in “The Anatomy of Fascism”:

The language and symbols of an authentic American fascism would, of course, have little to do with the original European models. They would have to be as familiar and reassuring to loyal Americans as the language and symbols of the original fascisms were familiar and reassuring to many Italians and Germans, as [George] Orwell suggested. Hitler and Mussolini, after all, had not tried to seem exotic to their fellow citizens. No swastikas in an American fascism, but Stars and Stripes (or Stars and Bars) and Christian crosses. No fascist salute, but mass recitations of the pledge of allegiance. These symbols contain no whiff of fascism in themselves, of course, but an American fascism would transform them into obligatory litmus tests for detecting the internal enemy.

It's worth noting though that in Europe the word Gypsy, or variants of Zigane / Zigeuner, is a racial slur and used in modern times in actual, horrifying violence against minorities. I mean to the point where it's used by the same people who paint swastikas on walls before they raze tent villages.

http://www.newstatesman.com/human-rights/2014/04/why-europe-failing-protect-its-roma-population-hate-crimes

In the US this is obviously not a thing, and it still doesn't make sense to me to start writing G*p*y (I just see 'guppy' when I read that) but there is a history of racism against the Romani going back centuries, as well as a modern culture of extreme marginalization and exclusion.

I don't want Europeans to go around casually using the N-word and thinking that that's only a disgusting term when it's used in the US, so I guess I wouldn't want Americans going around casually saying Gypsy either, if it can be avoided?

Lets be honest.
Most of didn't know anything about the flag when we were kids.
We all knew it as the flag that was on the roof of the Duke boy's car.
We thought it was cool, becuase it symbolized the General Lee "CAR" Don't forget the horn blast.( https://youtu.be/zAKksqKR3pI )

As we got older, we started to learn more about the flag, and what it represented.
But it's hard to let go of the happy childhood memories of watching the Dukes of Hazard every week and loving the car and the flag. And that is part of what stands in the way of us seeing what the flag symbolizes.
For most of us, we've imprinted a new meaning on the flag, so we don't always see it at a hate flag.

For those who view the swastika, we don't always see the symbol of peace it was for decades before the Nazi's appropriated it. We now only see it for the hate that redefined it.

Just some interesting thoughts....

Edit: I'm not defending the flag and it's use.
I don't celebrate tradition for tradition's sake - I think that's a poor excuse for flying the flag. It does represent bigotry in the Southern States, anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
I'm up in Canada, very detached from the bigotry down there, to me, it's the flag that was on the Duke's car.

You can't really be that dense, can you?
Flying the battle flag represents love and support of the 'confederacy' and what it stood for, which was clearly based on racist dehumanization of millions of people (just read what the confederacy's founders said at the time, it's clear). You can ignore that it's a symbol of racial hatred, you can listen to those that claim it's about 'heritage', but you must consciously ignore that the heritage it represents is one of complete subjugation of a people based on the amount of melanin in their skin, and a clearly stated superiority of those with less melanin. That IS the history of the flag, it is not, and never was about any other part of Southern culture.
Your mistaken feelings about this flag indicate that you think Germany should still fly the swastika, just below the current German flag? It's pretty much the same thing, and the same level of insult to the victims of the confederacy as the swastika would be to Jews/Polish/French/Belgians/etc.

Would you feel more comfortable if he wore a white hood? Maybe talk about 'gang lifestyle'?
I prefer my racists in white hoods and displaying swastikas, so I don't have to wade through subtext to id them. Open racism is stupid but at least honest. I despise political correctness and its ability to sugarcoat hatred. I'd rather engage a Neo-Nazi or white pride, god-hates-fags biblethumper than a Rick Santorum or Bill O'Reilly who are too much of a coward to say what they believe because they know how the broad public reacts.
The notion of not publicly voicing those idiotic, inhuman opinions because its offensive is more offensive to me than the opinion itself. I'd like to know if you're an idiot.
I believe in freedom of speech, even if that proves you're a terrible idiot. You have a right to be.

And now wake me up from that strange dream where I defend @lantern53.

It's sad that so many people have intentionally confused this issue by claiming that not passing it means people can force others to do their bidding, against the beliefs and wishes of the business owners.
That is patently false.
The law (and the argument against it) was not about stopping others from forcing anyone to create anything they're uncomfortable with, it's about allowing people to refuse their normally provided service to those they dislike.
With or without this law, no one has to make a penis cake for a gay wedding, no one has to make a satan cake for a Satanist wedding. No one has to make a star of David cake for a Jewish wedding. No one has to make a Nazi cake with a swastika. They simply can't refuse to serve those people based on their sexual orientation, religion, race, age, or sex. It's called civilization people...try it.

There are laws that prohibit displaying Nazi-symbols (like the swastika), hate speech, especially if it calls for violent action (like "Kill all Jews"), as well glorifying or defending actions of the Nazis.

But since they learned to stay clear of this in public they have the constitutional right to free speech and there is no way to forbid their stupid demonstrations.

First off, are Power Rangers really saluting under a swastika?

And second, the Charlie Brown theme song to the Mortal Kombat guys was perfect!

I had to LOL when he said there were 1,000 Obamas posting penises and swastikas.

That does suck. All I know is I had about 15 videos that disappeared (one that had nearly 50,000 views) once the whole Google Plus thing went live.

I hate it all.

Haha.

Google's vision:

1. Do no evil.
2. Allow Hitler and Jesus to post ASCII art of penises and swastikas.

"you have to limit the number of characters.. people are posting novels, movie scripts, ascii art of genitalia and swastikas"

That, right there, is why I don't comment on youtube.

There's no community, there's no value, there's nothing to be gained from reading them or posting on them. It's just too many people.

Even if 10% of the comments are insightful, thought-provoking or funny, it's just not worth it.

Youtube, as far as I'm concerned, is a hosting service. That's it.

Not quite a swastika. It's backward. It has other meanings as well, so it would be premature to assume they're neonazis or otherwise dimwits.

Could be, though.